Preview: Gophers vs. Northwestern

Bring on the New Year and the Big Ten. While the dream of having the entire Gopher roster together at last may get delayed by the flu, Minnesota should still have enough healthy bodies to make it a clear favorite over the Wildcats. Of course that hasn’t always equaled victory (see last year for a painful reminder), but this year it should.

The Wildcats are 8-4 on the season and 1-0 in conference play after handling Purdue pretty easily Wednesday night. They have a couple of bad home losses, but they’re a solid 3-2 on the road with victories over Charlotte and Seton Hall.

The key to most of those victories has been 6’8″ seniorVedran Vukusic , who currently leads the Big Ten at 22 points per game and is shooting a blazing 55% from the field. Vukusic is a threat both inside and out (he attempts about 5 three-pointers a game) and he’ll provide a major challenge for whoever guards him (most likely Dan Coleman andJ’son Stamper ).

The second member of Northwestern’s three-headed mini-monster is junior guardTim Doyle . He averages 10 points and 5 assists and put up 20 against the Boilers). The Wildcats’ third scoring threat is senior guardMohamed Hachad , who averages 10 points and 5 rebounds and is a do-everything threat. He’s missed the past two games due to an emergency appendectomy and is questionable on Saturday, however.

Here are my Gopher Keys of the Game:

1. Guard the 3. Outside of Vukusic, Northwestern doesn’t really have an inside offensive threat. But they do have a number of outside threats. If they’re going to pull a road upset, it’s almost certainly going to be a result of hot three-point shooting. The Gophers can’t let that happen.

2. Take Care. The other area the Wildcats try to get an edge is in turnovers. They take good care of the ball, and their defensive style tends to make opponents try to do too much. They committed 6 fewer turnovers than Purdue last game (and had an 11-3 advantage in steals), and they’ve surely seen the Gophers have some struggles taking care of the ball on film.

3. Rotate. Northwestern is not a deep team, especially if Hachad is out. They played just 7 guys (outside of mop-up time) against the Boilers. The Gophers do have some depth (although they haven’t used it that much lately) and should try to use it to keep the tempo to their liking. And if the flu is still causing problems, they’re going to need to rotate guys even more quickly to keep them fresh.

This is a game the Gophers absolutely have to win to get conference play started on the right foot. And assuming most of their players are healthy enough to play, it’s a game they should win without stressing the fans too much. But this is a team that has tended to provide a little stress in similar games this season, so you never know. My prediction: Minnesota 65 Northwestern 56.

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